


Best Interests

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff, Future Fic, Het, Rare Pair, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-13 01:42:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10503828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Joe has a very interesting, if strange, conversation with Martin Stein.





	

When Joe arrived at Jitters, he was well aware that he was a good fifteen minutes late, courtesy of a rather unpleasant meeting with Captain Singh. Sure enough, Martin Stein was already there, sitting a table in the middle of the floor, two steaming mugs of coffee on the table in front of him. "I took the liberty of ordering when it became apparent you were running late," he said after they shook hands. "It seemed to be an efficient use of time." Unsure of whether that was a rebuke, Joe just took a sip of the coffee and let Stein continue. 

"Thank you for agreeing to meet me... I understand that you must be busy, what with..." Stein looked around him at the packed coffee shop, dozens of people unaware of the current meta-human crisis. "...the current situation."

"It's no problem." Which happened to be the truth - Joe had been pulling double shifts the last few days, so a strong jolt of caffeine would definitely not go amiss. Still though, he was curious. He and Stein had talked before, when all Team Flash were assembled, but they'd never met one on one like this before. "What can I do for you, Professor?"

Stein shifted on his seat. "It has come to my attention," he said, speaking slowly, carefully, almost formally, "that the relationship between yourself and Caitlin has taken a somewhat... romantic... turn." 

Joe frowned. Whatever he'd been expecting, it hasn't been this. "We've been seeing each other for almost six months, if that's what you mean." 

"Quite, quite." Stein's head bobbed as he spoke rapidly, his hands making small circles in the air. "You see, Detective, you must understand that, due in no small part to my relationship with Ronald, Caitlin's well-being is of the utmost concern to me. And, also, not just because of Ronald... Caitlin is dear to me for my own sake too." 

If there was a question in there, Joe sure as hell wasn't hearing it. What he was hearing sounded more like an invitation to pistols at dawn, but considering Stein and his wife were as happy a couple as Joe had ever come across, he knew it couldn't be that. "Go on." 

"Caitlin has been through a lot. Lost a lot." Stein leaned forward on his seat, rested his arms on the table and joined his hands as if in prayer. "I would hate for her to be hurt. And while I am well aware, Detective, from my dealings with you, that you are indeed an honourable man, it has been my experience that even the most honourable men can sometimes be less so when matters of a..." He paused, evidently searching around for the right words before finally settling, with a look of distaste, "Carnal nature are involved." 

Between the phrasing and the look on the older man's face, Joe might have laughed, were it not for the fact that the penny had finally dropped and the reason for this meeting, away from the prying eyes of STAR Labs and its denizens, had finally made itself clear. "Professor... did you ask me here to find out my intentions towards Caitlin?" 

Stein didn't blink, didn't deny it. In fact, he leaned in ever so slightly and, with a narrowing of his eyes, doubled down. "I did." 

Joe's first impulse was to laugh in pure shock but when Stein said nothing further, just continued to stare at him, he took a deep breath and sat back in his chair as he considered his response. After a moment, he took another deep breath and began to speak, not really sure what he was going to say but trusting that the words would come. "Caitlin and I first met after the particle accelerator explosion," he said. "Barry was in a coma, in STAR Labs, and I'd come to see him every night. I'd sit there, tell him about my day, reminisce about him as a kid... I think I was trying to embarrass him into waking." The barest of smiles cracked Stein's face. "And Caitlin, she'd be there too. Taking his vitals, telling me how he was, putting it into layman's terms when she figured I hadn't a clue what she meant..." The smile got slightly wider. "And after a couple months, we began talking. She'd bring me a cup of coffee... I'd tell her the same stories I was telling Barry... She'd tell me about what it used to be like at STAR Labs, all kinds of stuff." 

Stein tilted his head. "You were friends." 

"We were." Joe took a sip of his coffee. "Then Barry woke up. And in all the madness that came after that, we lost sight of that. For a long time." 

"And that changed recently." It wasn't a question but Joe treated it as if it were. 

"You know that Caitlin and I, we both had break-ups last year." For once, the memory of Cecile didn't hurt. "Barry and Iris were spending all their time together, so were Wally and Jesse, Cisco had that whole whatever the hell it was he had going on with Cynthia..." He sighed, shook his head. "Caitlin and I had a whole lot of evenings where we were the only two without plans. Without company. And one night we ended up here at the same time." 

Stein's eyes grew wide. "Fate, one might say." 

Joe chuckled. "Didn't seem that way at the time. Just that there was no point the two of us being alone at two separate tables... So we had coffee. And we talked." He shrugged. "I didn't even realise how long we'd been there til they started putting the chairs up around us." He glanced over the corner table where they'd sat that night, able to picture Caitlin sitting across from him, her lips curled in a smile, her eyes dancing with mirth as she listened to whatever story he was telling her. "And that was the start of it. We met again a few nights later, same thing happened. And that was when she asked me to dinner." 

Stein did a hard double take and Joe hid his smile. It was nice to see that he could surprise the other man. "She asked you out?" Stein blinked as the words hung between them and he evidently heard how they sounded. "What I mean is-"

"What's a beautiful, intelligent, young woman like Caitlin doing with a police detective nearly twenty years older than her?" Joe didn't take offence in the slightest, after all he'd had those thoughts more than once. "To be honest, I don't understand it either... and believe me, I tried to talk her out of it." He twisted his lips as he remembered those conversations where he'd given her so many reasons they wouldn't work. "Turns out Caitlin's pretty stubborn when there's something she wants." And wasn't he grateful for it. 

"I have noticed." Stein's smile was far away, thoughtful. "She is a most uncommon woman." He chuckled almost to himself. "Although I did have the fortune to marry a woman just like her. A woman who, upon hearing of my plans to meet with you this morning, was not best pleased." He grimaced. "She seems to feel that the young folk do not take kindly to interference like this." He said it like he was quoting directly and indeed Joe could almost hear Clarissa Stein's voice saying the words. 

He had to admit, Clarissa may have had a point. That much said, he was the father to a daughter and he understood Stein's point of view perfectly. "I know what it's like," he said, "to have someone you care about... someone who, for whatever reason, you feel like you should look out for them. You want to know that they're going to be happy." After all, that had been all he'd ever wanted for Iris. 

"Exactly. It's not that I don't trust you." Stein sat back in his chair, looking relieved. "And it's certainly not that I don't trust Caitlin. But her well being is of great importance to me and I simply wanted to know before I disappear again..."

"You wanted to know if I had her best interests at heart." When Stein didn't move, didn't nod, just stared at him, Joe leaned forward, stared the older man down. "Professor, believe me, Caitlin's well being... her happiness... is important to me too. And I would never... never... do anything to hurt her."

Stein studied him for a long moment, his eyes never moving from Joe's. Finally, he nodded. "I suppose I always knew that," he said. "But I had to ask." He cleared his throat. "Thank you for humouring me."

Joe held his hand out and Stein took it, shook it firmly. "Any time."

*

He didn't get to talk to Caitlin about the conversation with Stein until later that day. Much later that day, in fact, or maybe very early the next one. Meta-human crisis averted, they'd stumbled home to catch up on some well deserved sleep, and he was sitting on the edge of her bed, watching her standing at the mirror, brushing her hair, when it came to him. 

"I had an interesting talk today," he said as he toed off his shoes. In the mirror, he saw her look in his direction, raise one eyebrow. "With Professor Stein." 

She blinked and the hairbrush froze in her hand. "Professor Stein?" She half turned to look at him. "What did he want?" 

Joe could feel his lips twitching with a smile. "To find out my intentions towards you." 

Caitlin blinked again, then a third and fourth time. "Excuse me?" 

Her obvious confusion made Joe chuckle. "Seems he wanted to make sure that I had your best interests in mind," he told her, standing up and crossing the room to stand in front of her. His hands found her hips, rested there gently. "And warn me against breaking your heart." 

Tossing the hairbrush on the dressing table, Caitlin's mouth opened and closed for a full minute before she could speak. When she did, she sounded indignant, but not for the reasons Joe had been expecting. "What kind of man does he think you are?" she demanded and it was his turn to be surprised. Then he remembered that this is Caitlin he was dealing with - she was just as protective of him as he was with her, if not more so. 

Of course, he had the perfect answer to that. "Oh, he assured me that it was nothing personal, that he knows I'm an honourable man. But that honourable men can be less so when matter of a ... carnal nature are involved."

They were Stein's words directly, said with as much of a match to the other man's tone and cadence as he could get. He thought h might have done quite well too because Caitlin stared at him, clearly boggled. "I would ask if you're joking, but that's way too close to Stein to be anything but the truth." She closed her eyes, shook her head as she tilted it back towards the ceiling. "I'm sorry... I'll have a word..." 

"No need." Her eyes flew open, confusion once again on her face and he grinned as he moved his hands to the small of her back, interlocking his fingers together and swaying her where she stood. "I took care of it." 

Caitlin's eyes narrowed and she pursed her lips in that way that made him want to kiss her. "What did you say?" 

"That I have nothing but your best interests at heart." He kissed her forehead. "That I understood his concerns... even shared them." That time, the kiss was to the tip of her nose. "That I would never hurt you." A kiss to her cheek then. "And that I tried to call things off but you thought I was just too damn irresistible..." 

She was laughing before he got to the end of the last sentence, swatting at his shoulder. "You did not." 

"Ok, ok, everything but the last part." He laughed too but then she put her arms around his neck, laid her head on her shoulder and pressed her body against his and he didn't feel like laughing anymore. "I told him you could be pretty stubborn when you'd a mind to be," he told her and she tilted her head up but didn't look offended. "And I thank my lucky stars every day you were." 

Her cheek was warm under his hand, but her lips were warmer when they moved against his. "I don't want to talk abut Professor Stein any more," she whispered as she began to unbutton his shirt, and Joe knew better than to argue with her when she had that look on her face. 

Especially when he was in complete agreement with her.


End file.
